The City of Gosford was a local government area that was located in the Central Coast region in the state of New South Wales, Australia.

[3] The local government area included a moderately densely populated coastal strip that extended northward from the Hawkesbury River, and an extensive sparsely-populated region to the west that was largely native bush.

The towns and villages located within the City of Gosford were: The traditional Aboriginal inhabitants of the lands now known as the Brisbane Water were the Guringai people of the Eora nation.

In 1811, the Governor of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, gave the first land grant in the region to William Nash, a former marine of the First Fleet.

[5] In 1840, the Brisbane Water Police District was proclaimed covering the area from the Hawkesbury River to Lake Macquarie and which administered local government under the control of magistrates.

[9] This experiment in local government was not very successful, with much public opposition focused on the issue of increased taxation, and a lack of oversight and faulty administration led to the collapse of many of these District Councils.

[10] However, no petition was ever sent from the residents of Brisbane Water to the government under this act, and local matters reverted to the police magistrates for determination.

In July 1907 a petition from the Municipality of Gosford was published in the Government Gazette requesting to merge with Erina Shire, the first Council to do so under the 1906 act.

[25] Despite objections, the commissioner returned a recommendation for the merger and a proposal for a six-ward model was considered and accepted at a conference held on 30 September 1907.

[5] On 22 April 1939, the Gosford Council Chambers on Mann Street, designed in the Inter-war Art Deco style by architects Loyal Figgis and Virgil Cizzio and built by A. E. Catterall at a cost of £5,785, was officially opened by the Minister for Local Government, Eric Spooner.

[48][49][50] Following significant debate about the provision of electricity undertakings across the Central Coast, including over the split between Erina Shire and Gosford,[51] on 16 October 1942 Gosford Municipality combined with the Shires of Erina and Woy Woy to form the Brisbane Water County Council to provide electricity to the combined area of the three councils.

[55] The formal government inquiry subsequently supported the proposal and in April 1946, Cahill notified the councils of his intention to proceed.

[62][63][64][65] On 5 August 1961, the council was brought into disrepute again when Councillor Donald Norman Lamont was convicted on 11 counts (fined £450) for three breaches of the Local Government Act 1919, including voting and participating in debate on several developments in which he had a significant undeclared financial interest.

[67] Subsequently, on 20 September 1961 Hills dismissed the council and appointed the Chief Inspector of Local Government Accounts, Henry William Dane, as administrator.

"[67] The inquiry was concluded in October 1961, with Special Magistrate E. R. Harvey finding that there was "no justification" for Council's actions to suspend the shire clerk.

[76] In 2015 a review of local government boundaries[broken anchor] by the NSW Government Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal recommended that Wyong Shire and Gosford City councils merge to form one single council with an area of 1,681 square kilometres (649 sq mi) and support a population of approximately 331,007.

[1] With a higher proportion of elderly residents than the national median, the data reflects the colloquial term for the area as God's Waiting Room.

In excess of 60% of all residents in the City of Gosford nominated a religious affiliation with Christianity at the 2011 Census, which was significantly higher than the national average of 50.2%.